


Sir, yes, sir

by aces_low



Series: drabbles and ish [22]
Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Bomb in the Garden, Discussion of Power Dynamics, Drinking, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-01-27
Packaged: 2019-03-09 22:45:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13491369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aces_low/pseuds/aces_low
Summary: Ray shares his gin with Nate.





	Sir, yes, sir

**Author's Note:**

> Was prompted on tumblr with: Can we pretend I didn’t just say that? for NateRay

This really isn’t fair. So, Ray had _one_ freak out where he tackled Rudy in anger, prompting Rudy to try to pop Ray’s head off his neck like a dandelion. But that was this afternoon, they’re both past it. Rudy already gave him an overly emotional apology, and Ray has stopped shaking from the adrenaline.

There’s no reason that Lieutenant Fick needs to be involved in this at all.

And yet, he’s been summoned to meet the LT over on the other side of the courtyard. LT had even sent Gunny Wynn to be his messenger, which just feels like overkill.

“Sir,” Ray announces himself when he sees the lieutenant leaning against the wall, apparently waiting for him.

The LT stands up straight and scans Ray over, probably looking for any major damages.

“Ray,” LT greets him, finally. “Do you still have that gin?”

Ray blinks a few times, trying to discern what exactly he’s being asked.

“The one that wasn’t supposed to come out in front of officers and senior NCO?”

The LT smirks and nods his head once.

“…no?” Ray lies, narrowing his eyes at his lieutenant, unsure if this is a test.

“If I wasn’t an officer, what would the answer be?” LT asks with a sigh.

Ray stops and assesses the situation himself, taking in Lieutenant Fick’s slightly slouched posture and tired eyes. If there’s anyone in their platoon who needs to get drunk, it’s him.

So, Ray takes a gamble and nods his head.

The LT’s shoulders drop just a fraction and he nods. “Get it, and meet me in the side office.”

He turns and walks away before Ray can respond.

It takes Ray about three seconds to wrap his head around the request - or maybe order - and get his ass in gear.

Almost everyone is too busy to pay attention to Ray smuggling booze out of his bag, shoving the bottle down his pants and hiding the bulge it makes with his shirt. It’s sadly too easy to sneak away from an entire platoon of recon marines.

He knocks on the open door of the office to alert his presence and walks in when the LT looks over at him.

Ray pulls the half-empty bottle of gin out of his pants and sets it on the desk. The only response to that from the LT is a quirk of his eyebrow and one of his aborted grins.

“How much do I owe you?”

Ray frowns. “Nothing.”

But the LT shakes his head. “I’m not just taking your stuff from you, that’s not how this works.”

“Sir, knowing that I have a hand in getting you drunk is enough payment for me,” Ray tells him honestly.

That makes the LT grin again, as always, it’s tight and it’s forced back and Ray has seen this stilted smile from his lieutenant so many times over the last month that he’s beginning to think that’s just how Fick smiles.

The LT walks around to the other side of the desk and opens one of the drawers, pulling out two paper cups and setting them on top.

“Alright, then close the door.”

Ray hesitates for a moment because it doesn’t feel like he’s being kicked out. If anything, that second cup makes him think he’s just been invited to drink with the LT. He’s so excited that he nearly trips on his way to the door.

When he closes it and turns back toward the room he sees the LT pouring the gin into both of the cups.

Ray walks back over to the desk and takes the offered cup from his lieutenant’s hands.

“Semper Fi,” LT says as a toast before downing his drink in one, wincing at the sting of the alcohol on his tongue and shivering slightly.

“Semper Fi,” Ray echoes, and follows the LT’s lead, taking the shot amount that’d been poured into his cup in one go.

Twenty minutes later, the LT is sitting on one of the chairs, his jacket slung over the back of it, looking more at ease than Ray has ever seen him and Ray has perched himself on top of the desk as he blathers on about the football game earlier.

“…and then wham! Captain Patterson takes down Captain Schwetje and just starts wailing on him,” Ray tells him, trying to keep his personal feelings about what he’d seen to a minimum.

Only, instead of chastising Ray for even mentioning their Captain getting his ass kicked, the LT just smirks and says, “remind me to shake Bryan’s hand tomorrow.”

Ray feels his eyes widen before he watches the LT’s eyes do the same.

“Can we pretend I didn’t just say that?” LT asks.

“As far as I’m concerned, sir, this conversation isn’t even happening,” Ray tells him, trying to clink his paper cup against the one in the LT’s hand.

“Ya know, you don’t have to call me sir right now. It feels kind of weird…considering.”

Ray frowns. “What would I call you?”

The LT shrugs. “Nate is fine.”

“Yeah,” Ray laughs. “I don’t think I can do that.”

“You rarely call Brad Sergeant or sir. You always just call him Brad,” Nate points out.

“Yeah, cause he’s Brad.”

Nate quirks an eyebrow. “And I’m Nate.”

Ray bites his lip, studying his LT for a long moment before shaking his head. It’s one thing to break the rules and hide away and get drunk with the guy. It’s a completely different thing to call him by his first name.

He’s sure that rationale makes sense, somehow.

Nate just shrugs and downs the rest of his drink, leaning forward to set his cup next to Ray.

“I heard the fight between Craig and Bryan wasn’t the only one that happened during that game,” Nate says, resting his elbows on his knees and gives Ray another appraising look.

Ray’s skin suddenly feels warm and he’s not sure he can blame the alcohol for that. Though he’s definitely going to.

He shrugs. “No big deal, we worked it out.”

“Are you ok?” Nate asks, voice low and concerned.

Ray rolls his eyes. “I’m _fine_. Everyone keeps ignoring the fact that I took Rudy down first. I may not be as big as everyone else, but I didn’t get into Recon by sucking every officer’s cock, only like three of them.”

He stops then, realizing what he’s just said. It’s a standard joke he’s used to telling to the enlisted guys, it’s a little bit different when he’s saying it to an actual officer.

But Nate doesn’t look annoyed or mad, his eyes, which are just a little hazy from the alcohol, have something of a glint behind them and he has another one of those smiles on where it looks like he’s holding something back.

“Why do you do that?” Ray asks because the small filter he actually does have - contrary to popular belief - is rendered useless when he drinks.

“Do what?”

“Smile like that, like you’re trying not to.”

The partial smile is gone at that, and Nate leans back further in his seat.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean you shouldn’t smile. I just…” Ray trails off, not really knowing what he’d been trying to do by bringing it up.

Nate shakes his head slowly. “It’s your fault, ya know,” he says, kicking his leg out to knock against Ray’s foot.

“My fault? How?”

“You make me smile too much,” Nate says with a shrug.

“ _I_ make you smile? God, are you a lightweight? I’m Ray, remember?” Ray jokes, waving at Nate, like maybe he’s forgotten who he’s talking to.

But Nate just rolls his eyes. “It’d be inappropriate if I was seen laughing at everything you say and do.”

“And certifiable,” Ray adds, trying not to squirm too much in his seat as Nate’s gaze lands on him and stays there. “Just ask Brad, he’ll be happy to explain to you why I’m a whiskey-tango dumbass who shouldn’t be encouraged.”

“That’s not true,” Nate says thoughtfully.

Ray doesn’t know if Nate means that Brad wouldn’t say it, or that if he did it wouldn’t be true. But Ray knows, Brad would definitely say it, whether he would mean it or not is a different thing entirely.

Before he can say anything else though, Nate stands and steps right into Ray’s space, forcing Ray to have to look up at him now. Nate’s green eyes are almost completely blown out as they lock with Ray’s and Ray can feel his heartbeat stutter and speed up as he continues to just stare.

Nate slowly reaches around him to grab the now almost empty bottle of gin. He lets his eyes wander away from Ray’s to study the bottle, and Ray feels himself breathe again and wonders if this moment is really as charged as it feels or if he’s just buzzed and hopeful.

Bringing the bottle up to his lips, - and now Ray can’t tell if that’s an overtly suggestive gesture, or if he is just unbelievably horny - Nate takes a large swig, the burn no longer affecting him the way the first drink had, now with his senses dulled. He offers the bottle to Ray, who takes it happily, finishing it off in one go, trying to tamper down whatever this reaction is he seems to be having in response to his LT just standing a little too close.

It’s not like it’s the first time Ray has been overly entranced by his lieutenant’s big eyes or pretty lips, but usually, he does it from a safe distance or through his imagination during one of his combat jacks. Having the LT this close, looking for all the world like any other guy that would be picking Ray up at a bar, is making his head spin a little.

All evening, Ray has been trying to decipher what Nate has been wanting, taking a risk, and getting it right. So, he decides to take another risk.

He sits up straight, leaning forward just enough that he’s able to lightly brush his lips against Nate’s.

Only, that’s all he’s able to do because Nate makes a sharp, breathy noise and jumps back like he’s been stung. And now, all Ray can do is panic.

He’d read the situation all wrong, just completely wrong. The one moment where he definitely couldn’t afford to read it wrong and he’d done it. It feels like his heart is about to detach itself, hammer it’s way up his esophagus, and ooze right out of his ears.

“Shit, I’m sorry,” Ray is able to choke out, watching Nate’s eyes widen and his mouth open and close like a fish, as he tries to find words. He probably needs to patch into his larger vocabulary in order to fully explain just how grandly Ray has fucked up.

When the LT still doesn’t seem to know what to say after a good thirty seconds, which feels like it’s lasted about an hour, Ray slides down off of the desk and prepares to make a run for it, thinking maybe he can hide in his grave until Nate is able to come up with the proper punishment, along with the inevitable discharge, for having one of his men kiss him.

Only, before he can take a step, Nate pushes him back up against the desk, hands holding firm to Ray’s sides.

“Wait,” Nate says, voice low and unsteady.

Ray can only imagine what they must look like if anyone were to walk in on them right now. His lower back is digging into the desk as his lieutenant holds him in place, both with his hands as well as his eyes because Ray doesn’t know that anything could get him to look away from Nate’s dark gaze right now.

“Just…” Nate starts, but trails off, fingers tightening against Ray’s ribs unnecessarily, because Ray hasn’t moved a muscle.

Nate swallows and licks his lips and takes a deep breath, and looks so torn that now Ray mostly just feels bad for awakening some sort of moral quandary in him.

“Just…” Nate starts again. “Not while you call me sir.”

Ray blinks a few times, once again, trying to take in what Nate is saying and translate what it actually means.

“Oh..kay?” Ray says slowly, not sure if he really understands.

“You’re not re-upping after this tour, are you?” Nate asks, his fingers still tight against Ray’s ribs and, annoyingly, it’s not the rank difference that is keeping Ray from asking him to loosen his grip. In fact, he kind of hopes he doesn’t.

Ray nods. He’s pretty well done with the corps, he loves a lot about it, mostly the friends he’s made, but after everything they’ve been through these past few weeks, Ray doesn’t know that he’ll be able to keep from open insubordination in front of the wrong officers for much longer. He figures it’s better to get out on top.

“Once we’re back in the states, and you’re a civilian again, and if you still want to…” Nate trails off, but Ray understands now.

He knows his grin is probably way too wide at the moment, he can feel the tug on his cheeks, but it’s worth it to see Nate mirror his smile, with teeth showing and everything. And it’s probably the best thing Ray has ever seen.

“Now _that’s_ a fucking smile, sir,” Ray says after a moment of them just smiling at each other like idiots.

Nate squeezes his sides one more time before finally releasing him. But he doesn’t stop smiling, and that’s really all that matters.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
